Slipping under the radar, the Rhino Primaris made it from normal 40k Space Marine rules to Warhammer Legends. But what is it?
The Rhino Primaris is one of those older, obscure units that you probably never saw on the tabletop. And with the massive wave of units that just made their way into Warhammer Legends, this was one of them.
If you’re curious about what this unit is, check out these details.
Rhino Primaris: Warhammer Legends
The Rhino Primaris is an interesting vehicle. It acts as a back-field home base for your units to camp by- not what you’d normally expect by hearing the word “Rhino”.
Looking at the statline, the Rhino Primaris looks exactly like a run in the mill Rhino. It’s T7 with 10 wounds, 3+ armor save and no invuln. This unit takes up an HQ slot as well. So it has 10 wounds and no invulnerable, which in theory means it can be targetted and is just asking to get Lascannoned. This is definitely a vehicle you’d want to run out of LOS and behind a gunline army.
In each of your shooting phases, it can:
- make a unit +1 to hit
- heal a lost wound from a vehicle- nice but honestly won’t make too much of a difference with anti-armor firepower pointing at it.
- subtract 1 from the dice roll on morale tests of a unit- also almost useless.
The Rhino Primaris can also call in a D3 shot orbital strike once per game. Heavy D6 shots if you target something with 10 or more models in it. That’s possibly 6 shots at S10, -4AP D6 damage a pop. You don’t need LOS for calling in the bombardment either, which is nice.
Is the Rhino Primaris a Competitive Option?
No invulnerable save and being a valuable vehicle is kind of rough. In theory, you can make it work as long as you keep out of LOS. But with all the anti-LOS shooting that’s been introduced, it’ll still have a rough time. On top of that, you can find cheaper, and safer +1 to hit bonuses from characters like Malkaan Feirros and Tor Garadon now.
For wargear, it’s got twin plasma guns. In rapid-fire, it can really make it annoying for your opponent to get to it if you’re hugging corners and going against Primaris. But this definitely won’t win you any games and hardly adds to the appeal of taking this as an HQ slot.
You could also argue that taking a Captain and a Lieutenant would give about the same effect and would be harder for the enemy to target. However, Putting this unit near a devastator squad gunline can really be scary. But you’ll be forced to play more passive with it 9 out of 10 times just because of its vulnerability.
Rhino Primaris Tactica
Don’t even think about taking a Rhino in an assault army. You may think your opponent will have too much to deal with in his face but It’s just asking to get deepstruck on if you leave it defenseless.
You’ll want to have a nice group of units around it to allow it buff things and for those things to protect it. I.E the gunline that we were talking about earlier. The only drawback to this is probably half of your army won’t be very mobile. But if you’re going to be running a gunline-style army in the first place, you might as well bring Guilliman and call it a day.
All in all, it’s definitely a cool model and has some fun elements to add in narrative games. Although it’s not a very good HQ option in general.
If you want to find out more on the Rhino Primaris, make sure you watch this unboxing video:
What are your thoughts on all the units that made their way into Warhammer Legends? Have you tried bringing a Rhino Primaris in your games?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
